Good enough material from Marvelous 3

February 6, 1999
Mike Ross
Express Writer

HEY! ALBUM
Marvelous 3 (Warner)

What a tasty little flavour of the week: Collective Soul's opening act, Marvelous 3.

(Both bands play the Shaw Conference Centre on March 7.)

This crisp and tightly wound music sounds like it was cloned in the Radio Friendly Lab. You get happy pop hooks - catchy as the Asian flu - prancing neatly amongst hard-driving guitars and high-energy beats. You get singer Butch Walker being dramatic on trite, young-adult-angst lyrics riddled with references ripped from yesterday's supermarket tabloids. You get Green Day meets the Knack at an Up With People rally.

As predictable, formulaic, derivative and calculated as this band is, it's hard to hate such dopey exuberance. Hey! It sure beats Hootie and the Blowfish.